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It’s Christmas in the steampunk city of New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Story by Saffia WiddershinsPhotos by Wildstar Beaumont

Story so far:When Miss Saffia Widdershins and Mr Victor Mornington fail to turn up at a rebndezvous in New Babbage, Mr Merlin scents trouble! With the help of Miss Beq Janus he sets out to track them down. But he needs help from one more person ...

It’s Christmas in the steampunk city of New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Story by Saffia WiddershinsPhotos by Wildstar Beaumont

Story so far:While Mr Elrik Merlin explored the latest in steam sleighs with Miss Beq Janus, the renowned engineer, Miss Saffia Widdershins and Mr Victor Mornington have been attacked by a secret Santa far under the streets of New Babbage!

It’s Christmas in the steampunk city of New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Story by Saffia WiddershinsPhotos by Wildstar Beaumont

Story so far:While Mr Elrik Merlin explores the latest in steam sleighs with Miss Beq Janus, the renowned engineer, Miss Saffia Widdershins accompanies Mr Victor Mornington to hide Christmas presents in his secret store where they have discovered a secret Santa ... and they're about to find out why he's wearing a gas mask!

It’s Christmas in the steampunk city of New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Story by Saffia WiddershinsPhotos by Wildstar Beaumont

Story so far:Miss Saffia Widdershins, accompanied by her friend, Mr Elrik Merlin, is delivering presents to the urchins of New Babbage to be hidden (for the moment) in the secret underground store belonging to the Assistant Mace-holder, Mr Mornington. Meanwhile, Mr Merlin has been promised the sight of a rather special engineering project by Miss Janus ...

It’s Christmas in the steampunk city of New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Story by Saffia Widdershins Photos by Wildstar BeaumontStory so far:Miss Saffia Widdershins, accompanied by her friend, Mr Elrik Merlin, is delivering presents to the urchins of New Babbage. They've met the Assistant Mace-holder, Mr Mornington, who has a secret present store.Now read on:

The Java Jive and surrounding vintage shops in Seraph City are now bigger and better than ever! Please celebrate these new beginnings and the holidays as the lovely Adevina Citron sings live until 8pm, followed by Diana Garsdale's taking the stream for an hour of selected jazz and Christmas tunes.

Mark your calendar now! Friday, December 23rd, 7pm slt!

We suggest formal clothing from the 1920's to the 1940's. If your wardrobe is lacking, arrive a bit early and browse the shops on either side of the Java Jive. You'll find many of Second Life's best vintage designers for women AND men.

The Java Jive and surrounding vintage shops in Seraph City are now bigger and better than ever! Please celebrate these new beginnings and the holidays with dancing to live music, followed by Diana Garsdale's taking the stream for an hour of selected tunes. The fun starts December 23, at 7pm slt.

Singer Adevina Citron-Gearz's breathtaking voice will make this an event you won't forget. We suggest formal clothing from the 1920's to the 1940's. If your wardrobe is lacking, arrive a bit early and browse the shops of many of Second Life's best vintage designers for women AND men.

Late one night, a conversation betwixt TotalLunar Eclipse and myself resulted in his penning this little essay almost instantaneously. Please allow me share it with you! -- Ceejay Writer

‘C 4 works most effectively.’ – Tensai Hilra

I remember my very first build, it was a pathetic little mushroom. At that time the fungus was the crowning achievement of my second life, I was most proud. My second build was an actual building so my personal graduation from flora to architecture was quite severe but as I stared at the little fish shack I thought to myself, ‘I can do better than this.’

Through the subsequent months thereafter I learned extensively what all the little tabs the build feature has to offer. In hindsight if I had known about Ivory Tower or other places that teach building I would have used those resources. Soon one build turned to several and my eyes surveyed the buildings created. From their construction one can clearly see the gradual knowledge accumulation with each build, each alpha glitch and more recently incorporating sculpts and mesh into the work.

I remember how difficult it was for me to take down my predecessors buildings, how each one, though its construction sorely in need of update, was dear and special and held memories of this or that… to me it was inconsistencies skewing the vision, dampening the growth of the city. That fish shack was the first to undergo my critical eye and I found great joy in turning it physical, then unlinking it, watching in great satisfaction as each prim scattered about the place. The grin couldn’t be wiped from my face at that point. What else should I deconstruct? The barn? Sure!

Steelhead has always been in a state of constant change, the more I learn and refine my building skills the more I want to tear what I’ve already done and begin again. Coupled with my wife’s tendencies to destroy everything she touches, we blended together explosives with the tear down process to make things easier. The town loved this as much as Las Vegas residents and visitors love when they blow up a hotel.

I remember our first explosive deconstruction, my wife and I kept it a secret altogether. The building that was to come down was the old Saloon. It was a beautiful white building with French Quarter style façade and decorative wrought iron archways. We parked a pirate boat on the waterfront pier and held a pirate party on the boat with, of course, massive amounts of beer and parrots on the HMS Jolly Pigeon. All the ship’s cannons were aimed at the building, and at the stroke of 8 we played an appropriate overture and the entire building collapsed. The shock, the amazement and the hysterical laughter made it worth the while. For a few days the building sat in its desecrated demolished state while people wondered what the fate of the building was, until something bigger and far more elaborate plopped down onto the ground and we of course had to have a party inaugurating it.

Steelhead is ever changing, and even residents and landowners are in a constant state of rebuild and retry and sometimes rebuild, regret, retry but deep down inside it’s the satisfaction of creation and seeing your own skills growing with each prim you place. At least that’s how it was for me. And even though I have destroyed half of Steelhead and started over again I still have fond memories of places long gone and builds no longer with us. But I am far more romantic than I lead on, deep inside inventory sits a tiny unusual and quite ugly little mushroom that could scarcely be given away let alone sold.

Saffia and Elrik are visiting New Babbage to deliver a shipment of seasonal gifts from Prim Perfect Publications to the urchins of New Babbage. Saffia will be meeting our old friend, the Assistant Maceholder of New Babbage, Victor Mornington, to deliver the gifts, while Elrik hopes to get a look at some of the exciting new steam-powered technology developed for the winter season by their ingenious engineers. And this is New Babbage, after all, so absolutely nothing at all can go wrong...

In other words ... we bring you the story of How Mr Biggins Saved Christmas!

The Tales project consists of thirty stories between 600 and 7,500 words, all by Babbage authors. Some of the pieces have previously appeared in online form, but none have been in print. Initial funding was provided by Babbage residents and steampunk enthusiasts through a Kickstarter project, and all copy-editing and typesetting was provided by volunteers. Proceeds from the project will be contributed to Clockwinder Tenk to help offset the cost of running the City.

We're doing an initial print run of 100 units so we can offer them at cost to Babbagers for the holidays: $8.95 each. (Google Checkout will add shipping based on where you live.) That order should arrive the week of December 12, at which point we will turn around and fill any orders we've received.

You can also order it directly from Lulu or Amazon beginning December 12 - eReader versions should be available at about the same time. The price, however, will probably be significantly higher. We'll update this space with details as they become available.

CONTRIBUTORS AND KICKSTARTER PROJECT SUPPORTERS: your copies will be sent out when we receive the first shipment, so please only order extra copies.

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show on http://treet.tv/live – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site at http://treet.tv/shows/designingworlds- our very own version of the iPlayer!